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East is Least, Which May be Red Wings Best Hope

Eight of 16 Eastern Conference teams show losing records

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Both the Red Wings and Pittsburgh Penguins are among eight teams in the East with losing records.

The Detroit Red Wings got back on the winning track Monday via a 4-2 road victory over the New York Islanders.

That’s the good news.

The bad news? Well, they don’t get to play the Isles again this season. The Wings are 3-0 against them this season. The Islanders have accounted for 33.3% of Detroit’s nine victories this season.

But wait, there’s other good news on the horizon. It’s true that on the whole, the Red Wings so far are not looking like a very good team this season.

As far as goalie Alex Lyon is concerned, these are desperate times. And they are calling for desperate measures.

“I think that we’re in desperation mode for sure,” Lyon told the FanDuel Sports Network following Monday’s win. “We need to play desperate every night.

“I think that the best teams in this league play desperate every night.”

Fortunately for the Red Wings, mediocrity loves company. In this season’s NHL, the Eastern Conference is displaying an overabundance of bad squads.

If you don’t buy into the NHL’s loser point scenario and count overtime losses for what they are – defeats – then eight of the 16 clubs in the East are currently playing below-.500 hockey. That includes the 9-10-2 Red Wings.

All eight of these teams are displaying negative goal differentials. None have a winning road record. Only Boston (5-3-2) and Philadelphia (5-3-2) are showing a winning slate through the past 10 games.

This, as much as any reason, is keeping the Red Wings in the hunt while they seek to hunt down more consistency in their game.

Red Wings Must Take Advantage Of Home Ice

“I guess maybe the one positive is with us battling through some things, the division, (four) teams are under .500 and half if not more of the teams in the entire conference are .500 or under .500,” Detroit coach Derek Lalonde said. “That’s more big picture but it (shows it) hasn’t gotten away from us.

“It’s a little frustrating because we’ve had signs with some quality play, but we need to be more consistent with it and we got to keep fighting to get there.”

Detroit is 5-5-1 as a road team following Monday’s win. What’s alarming is that they are a dismal 4-5-1 at Little Caesars Arena.

Teams with losing home-ice records generally don’t make the playoffs. Beginning a stretch of three home games in five days starting with Wednesday’s game against Calgary, it’s long past time for Detroit to begin taking care of home ice.

“We’re a game under. 500 at home,” Lalonde said. “We have to be better at home.”

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AKscott

Their underlying numbers suggests to me they’ll be at least 10 games out by Christmas unless Yzerman shakes things up. They are a PP, or goaltending slip away from falling steeply off a cliff.

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